Requiem of the Hero
by Zayad
Summary: Gaea won. Percy has been on the run for the last ten years, having avoided death through skill and luck. But at long last, the nightmare of reality is coming to an end. Because Percy is going to change the future by changing the past... for the better. And if he just so happens to come across an opportunity to drop a continent on Gaea, well, he could live with that.
1. The Ending That Never Came

~A78 Ch1~

An ice pick dug into the tough ice deeply, embedding itself so throughly into the mountain that even Hercules himself would be hard pressed to remove it with his godly strength. The man holding the ice pick gritted his teeth as he, with an impressive demonstration of strength, hoisted himself up, his other arm raising to grasp at the ledge. For a few short, sweet seconds, he inhaled the thin air like a child munching on the most delicious candy. Then, he stood up, ice pick left where it was, impaled on the icy side of the mountain, and from one of his many pockets, all magically enchanted by him to have a limitless capacity, and finally took out a black rod.

It was an undecorated rod made of Stygian Iron, approximately one foot in length, and at the very tip, a diamond, the interior shifting and swirling with many black wisps, all desiring nothing more than to break free and coalesce into the Titan of Time. However, the diamond was enchanted by Lady Hecate herself, the Mistress of all Magicks, to never shatter, and designed to only absorb the essence of the first being the diamond came in contact with– in this case being the scatter soul pieces of the Titan Kronos. Holding the diamond in place was were four curved edges of Stygian Iron, further contributing as a safeguard to prevent the soul pieces of the Titan King from escaping.

Lady Hecate was a strong goddess, being a former Titaness, however, not even her power would be enough to prevent the collective power of the gathered soul pieces of Kronos from escaping. However, all divine beings or partly divine beings were subject to the powers of the divine metals. Stygian Iron absorbed the essence of monsters, however, because Titans, even with their souls cleaved into thousands of pieces, were a higher being, an actual, immortal deity; not even Stygian Iron could possibly absorb the divine essence of an immortal. However, in Kronos's case, his essence was split, as the man holding the rod discovered with the help of various gods and goddesses, and so it could be gathered and prevented from escaping.

Despite the frigid, thin air, the jet stream buffering him, wanting him to fall off the mountain he had climbed in less three days and plummet to his death– _even now, after his death, Zeus still wants me to die because I'm too high up? That's a riot_– and the beginning traces of a snowstorm starting to obscure his vision, he laughed madly despite not having used his voice in nearly a year. It was a hoarse, croaking sound that resonated all across the mountain and scared off all wildlife– if there was any wildlife in the Death Zone of Mount Everest, where there was little oxygen for a human to breathe, let alone for any sort of animal to live so high above the earth.

Even the words he spoke sounded strange to his own ears, belonging, in his opinion, to some sort of hermit than he, the once Savior of the World, the Slayer of Kronos, Hyperion, and many more deities including various, infamous monsters, and the self-resurrecting Giants who just couldn't seem to die for more than a die, even when using a Stygian Iron weapon. _Fucking Giants._

He made a imposing if, not particular impressive figure, holding a black rod high above him. He was tall, a few inches over six feet, though very thin. He hadn't eaten actual food in weeks, instead relying upon melting snow for water, whatever animals he could find, though that was mostly small insects, for protein, and the local plant-life to supplant the rest of his nutrients. His cheeks were gaunt, sea-green colored eyes inherited from his father, weary with all he had been through, and messy black hair covered in a fine, if spotted, layer of snow, having given up on the hundredth attempt to clear the snow from his hair. Around his shoulders was the pelt of a Nemean Lion, granting him invulnerability from most attacks, a necessity in these war-torn times, though he made sure not to rely upon it lest his skill dulled, warm if uncomfortable pants, thick warm socks, and climbing boots.

His name was Perseus Jackson and he was the last living remnant of the Olympian Pantheon.

The Mother Earth, Gaea to Greeks, and Terra to Romans, had won the Second Giant War many years ago, ten if he was precise, by awakening through the death of two demigods of the Great Prophecy, and causing the obliteration of Mount Olympus, and therefore, the weakening though not the actual deaths of the Olympians. By destroying the thrones of the Olympians atop Mount Olympus, Gaea had weakened the Olympians to the point, where, while they were still immortal, much of their power and abilities had declined exponentially. No longer, since the moment of the destruction of their thrones, could Olympians assume their divine forms, nor could they fight on a divine level to effectively combat the Giants let alone the Mother Earth. Only the minor gods and goddesses were spared from losing the majority of their powers.

The following five years were difficult, the Olympians and allies warring with a policy of blitzkrieg, striking at whatever they could before swiftly retreating. Gods and demigods worked together, ancient laws be damned, though even their combined efforts were only enough to delay the inevitable.

And then, everything came crashing down when Dionysius, the God of Wine, Madness, Theater, and Vegetation, faded at the hands of his Giant counterparts, Otis and Ephitales. And that, had been only the beginning of the true end. His death had caused many demigods to descend into madness and hopelessness, and had caused their deaths, only contributing more to the descent into madness, and thus, the eternal cycle of insanity and death.

After that, the Olympians and the many minor gods allied with them, knowing their time would soon be at an end, turned to training their children so that they may, at least try to find a way to defeat Gaea. By this point, of the original seven, only Perseus remained. Demigods and legacies of both Greece and Rome had only a quarter of the total numbers remaining. Some had died in the final, true battle of Olympus, defending the thrones of the Olympians, others had turned to Gaea in exchange for their survival, the majority had died soon after Dionysius, and the remaining had simply left to go their own ways. The final group had all been hunted down to extinction.

Perseus had benefited most from the training. In actuality, by that point, he was the single, greatest swordsman among all the allies and was better than a great many of the enemy side. So, he had learned how to better manipulate his powers over water. Turning water to ice, and to steam, and learning how to use both aspects of water in combat. Then, when he had received a blessing from Hades, he had learned how to control shadows and darkness though it was slightly less than a child of Hades. More significantly, he could now do more than cause earthquakes. Now, he was capable of controlling the earth to a great degree, more than any child of Hades or Poseidon could control. And of course, perhaps the most beneficial aspect of receiving a blessing from Hades was that he could now wield Stygian Iron without having to fight the metal for possession of his soul.

And then, of all things he could have possible conceived, he would never have believed, not until Zeus had actually done the deed, that Zeus would have given he, the son of Poseidon, his blessing. His control over wind now consisted more than simply creating hurricanes. More importantly, and more interestingly, he could create lightning and manipulate it, though it was far more difficult than manipulating water.

Upon the deaths of the Big Three, the last deaths causing the complete elimination of the Olympians, despite Percy's best efforts, the coalition of Greek and Roman demigods had dissolved into chaos, only further supported by a surprise attack by an absolutely massive army spearheaded by three of the Gigantes, the anti-thesis of the Big Three, and after that battle, when Percy, after witnessing the death of the last demigod other than himself, and simply flooded everything in a three mile radius, before fleeing.

He ran far, far away from Crete, and had traveled continents for two years, a massive horde of monsters always dogging his steps. He had considered, many times, to hide in Tartarus of all places where not even the Gigantes or Gaea would dare to enter for fear of Tartarus and Nyx. Another thing he had considered was to flee to Antartica and, when Gaea herself arrived to slay that demigod in existence, he would collapse the entire, fucking continent on that absolute bitch who had conquered the world and die in the greatest way a demigod could. Giving the finger on each hand to a primordial goddess as he caused the largest earthquake that would ever be known to man (though at that point, he was the only human left) and then, he would flood the collapsed continent as much as he could before something or somebody finally struck him down.

While suicidal, that would have been fun.

On many occasions, he had found himself moving south, to Antartica, to do exactly that, before immediately discarding the idea and walking in another direction. No one would have wanted him to commit suicide, that he knew for sure.

So, he continued traveling, until one day, a goddess approached him with an idea and an offer.

Lady Hecate.

She had presented the idea of gathering the scattered pieces of Kronos and using them in a magical ritual that would send him back in time so that he could prevent Armageddon from ever happening. Percy had his doubts, but, had nothing better to do than go along with the idea. The worst that could happen was that he would die, which wasn't particularly ominous or a concept to be feared considering that one, he had been to the Underworld multiple times, and two, he had contemplated suicide by continent collapse on multiple times. Of course, he would likely be tortured for all eternity but, since it was more than possible to escape the Underworld and Tartarus so he wasn't particularly worried about dying.

Together, they traveled, Hecate blessing him and teaching him first, the ritual that would allow him to travel back in time and then every other magic he could possibly need or want. They had met up with other minor gods and goddesses, and though many of them refused to help them, the Titaness Mnemosyne, had taught him how to seal parts of his memory and how to prevent any being from reading, scanning, or taking away his memory. It wouldn't do if some being from the past accidentally discovered he was from the future.

During that time, they had found many pieces of Kronos's soul, and had absorbed them into the black rod Hecate had created. Many were still scattered about but for the first time in a long time, Percy began to hope.

But then, Gaea had learned of their plan and had tricked them into a trap. Hecate had sacrificed herself, giving Percy enough time to escape.

The following year had found Percy focused intently upon his task, never speaking. He was, by that point, the only living human on Earth. Gaea had followed through on her favorite child's, Kronos's, promise of annihilating any and every human in existence. Not even the demigods who betrayed the Olympians were spared. Only Percy remained. And he was constantly hounded by an entire legion of monsters, anything less being drowned or dropped into Tartarus, courtesy of his his earth powers.

Percy knew that Gaea had been toying with him the entire past year, wanting him to feel hopeless when the success of his task was snatched before his very eyes.

Percy grinned as the diamond began glowing, indicating the presence of the last piece of Kronos's soul nearby. Gaea wouldn't exist long enough to regret her decision.

...

An hour later found Percy at the very peak of Mount Everest, where somehow, when Luke had struck his mortal point, the last sliver of Kronos's soul had come to rest. Touching the invisible soul piece, only visible to Percy by channeling magic to his eyes, with the diamond, absorbed Kronos's last soul piece. Kronos was soul was complete once more though still unable to actually form his divine body.

_Looks like it doesn't really take that much to reform Kronos, just a dedicated follower. Apparently, I'm more competent than the combined efforts of several Titans, demigods, hundreds of thousands of monsters, and even Kronos himself when it comes to trying to resurrect the bastard._ Percy snorted in amusement. _And I had less time too._

_Now, where are my stalkers_... A roll to the left saved Percy from becoming a popsicle. _Ah, there's one._

"Ah, Khione, what a surprise." It really wasn't considering that she had been following Percy for weeks.

"Perseus Jackson," the goddess of snow snarled. "Give up now and I promise your death will be as painful as you could never imagine!"

"Oh, shut up Khione," Percy switched the black rod to his left hand while summoning to his right hand, the Black Sword of Hades, given to him by Hades upon the God of the Underworld's death.

He'd received two other weapons, both considered symbols of powers because of the amount of power the other two of the Big Three had put in before they died. The first was once known as the Eagle of the 12th Legion, though when it had broken against Gaea, Zeus had had it reforged into a simplistic staff made entirely of Imperial Gold and capped at both ends with what used to be Zeus's Master-Bolt. Its name was Fulminata, in honor of what the staff once was and who had given it to him. The other weapon he had received was a second, smaller version of Poseidon's Trident forged for him by his own father so that he wouldn't be left defenseless when the gods faded and couldn't kill a Giant without a god's help. Because the weapon held the power of a god and he was still a demigod, he could kill a Ginat without the help of a god. Its name was Fury because, to Percy, that's what it represented. Not the gentleness of the ocean but the fury of the deep.

"Eradicator," Khione whispered before summoning her own weapon, a Celestial Bronze sword three feet in length.

Yes, Percy, had named the Black Sword of Hades, Eradicator, partly because of its ability to send even a Giant to Tartarus for a day, and because Hades had told him to kill every last monster, Giant, and Primordial that came after him. And he did with relish...and Fury.

"Gaea would like to thank you for gathering all the pieces of her favorite son for her," Khione smirked at him, launching ice javelins at him.

Percy countered by dissolving the ice javelins in midair and retaliated by causing the earth to rise before Khione and essentially, sucker-punch the goddess. She gasped, the air leaving her as she stumbled back.

Giving her no time to rest, Percy dashed forward, intent on slitting the goddess's throat, but was forced to dodge a sword– his sword, Riptide, that had been taken from him by the Mother Earth– at the last moment.

"Gaea," Percy hissed as Khione slowly rose and stood aside Gaea.

"I thought I would thank you in person, Percy," Gaea's voice was light, soothing even. "So thank you, Percy, for retrieving my son's soul fragments. Now, be a good little boy and hand them over."

"Did you know that Hecate had a ritual to send someone back in time?" Perseus asked as he stabbed Eradicator into the mountain and calmly began removing his clothing, black rod still in hand. "Do you know what is needed to power up the ritual?"

Gaea decided to play along despite Khione's silent protests. "I would assume some sort of large power source."

"Correct, Gaea," Gaea frowned at use of her name without the word 'Lady' in front of it. She blinked at the strange, runic inscriptions that covered his body glowing a soft blue.

"Did you know that several times on the run, I had considered drawing you to Antartica, trapping you, somehow, smashing every bit of ice and rock at you of Antartica at you, then flooding everything with water, until I died?" Percy asked. He was naked now, devoid of every strip of clothing. Only his control of wind and ice prevented him from getting frostbite. A hand rested on the pommel of Eradicator.

"That would indeed be an astonishing display of power for a demigod," Gaea commented, having not attacked him solely because of her curiosity of what he planned to do.

"True, I would probably die before I launched a quarter of the continent at you," Percy admitted. "But I should be able to manage a mountain."

Gaea's eyes in surprise as the mountain began shaking and quaking, knocking her off-balance for the first time since her awakening. Khione dashed forward, eager to slay the last demigod in existence, her power minor power over the winds, inherited from her father, allowing her to avoid the surprise earthquake.

"Is that your final technique?" Khione shouted as her pace increased and her sword came closer and closer to Perseus's neck. "Pathetic!"

Just before her sword would cut demigod flesh, Percy extended his hand and allowed her sword to pierce his left palm, angling it in a way that would prevent Khione's sword from touching the black rod. Crimson blood trickled down his hand, partially activating the runes magically inscribed on his body.

"The first thing needed," Percy told the goddess quietly, as his right arm grasped her neck tightly, "is the blood of the person who plans on returning to the past."

"The second thing needed," Percy charged his right hand with electricity, piercing her throat where his hand clutched her throat and drawing ichor, the golden blood of immortals, "is the blood of an immortal. After all, there aren't many things in the world more powerful than a god or goddess."

Percy tossed her away as far as he possibly could, and with his left hand, still bleeding, raised the diamond of the black rod to his heart and touched the rune inscribed there. A white-hot pain coursed through his veins, spreading quickly, and making him feel as if he had somehow managed to get Ladon's poison into his bloodstream. The mountain began collapsing all around him taking Gaea and Khione down, far away from him, and piling tonnes of rock and ice down on them.

A white, blinding light surrounded the demigod and with one, enormous surge of bright, white light, vanished from the war-torn future.

_I better get to drop a continent on her next time._

~A78 Ch1~

**So, I probably should have worked on another of my fics but this idea just wouldn't leave me alone so, I wrote it. I've always though time-travel in the PJO world would be fairly interesting.**

**I haven't read the House of Hades or the Blood of Olympus (through, while researching for my other PJO fic, I have stumbled upon elements from the HoH so you might see some of that) so for the most part, I won't be using anything from there. **

**I've always thought time-travel would be fairly easy considering Kronos, the embodiement of time is around for four years, reforming for the most part so I'm surprised I haven't seen more of these kind of fics around (though I may just be missing them, who knows?).**

**Likely, harem. I'm open to suggestions though not Annabeth, since I've already thought of a reason why they would be broken up. I thought about Artemis, Zoë, and Thalia, though like I said, I'm open to suggestions._  
><em>**

**First chapter title is based off a fic I liked so if you think you've seen it somewhere, that's probably it.**

**That's about all I could remember of what I wanted to say so...**

**As always,**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. As Months Go By

~A78 Ch2~

There was nothing magnificent about his arrival. There was no showy display of light or loud bang that announced his arrival into the past. He simply woke up.

As soon as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room he shared with three other guys, a scream of pure, unadulterated joy threatened to escape his lips. He had done it! Somehow, he had managed to travel back to the past! He could change the past! He could give everyone a future!

He wouldn't be alone any longer...

That last one caused him to heave a sigh in the disgusting stench of a silence, that lingering stink that only four pubescent boys just entering their teenage years and all cramped in a tiny room could bring about. But he didn't care. Because he was back. And he had the ability to save everyone.

The loneliness of being the only living mortal for years had always surfaced at the edges of his mind while he was on the run, creeping up at the worst of times, and always whispering that his endeavor was a futile one. But each time, he had always managed to push it back, had managed to continue his task despite being by himself. Despite being all alone for many years. The final year was the most difficult for Percy to endure. In that year that had begun when Hecate had been forced to fade, that was when he had been truly alone.

He could rely upon no one but himself because there was no one left to rely upon. No one but himself. Percy had nearly given up hope on many occasions. He supposed that was why he wanted to drop a continent on Gaea. Not because of the irony of the idea– he thought it would be pretty funny to drop a good chunk of the earth on the goddess of the earth– but because he didn't want to deal with the unbearable loneliness any longer.

But, his tenacity and stubbornness, his loyalty to the gods even longer after the last of them had died, had proved fruitful. He was here and Gaea and her damnable minions were not.

Despite his age, in this case, having only just turned twelve a month and a half ago, the frailty of his skinny, young body, and his current supposed lack of knowledge of the gods, he considered himself to have the advantage. He could alter the current plan of the Fates, the current course of the future– Armageddon– to something not quite Armageddon.

Of course, he would have to deal with stupid things like Zeus's pride, Luke's idiocy, and minor things like battling Ares and killing Kronos, but in the end, he would prove to be victorious.

Like last time, it was him versus the world.

A few short moments ago, it had literally been him versus the embodiment of the world.

He had defied her once, well several times technically, but compared to her, the world would be cake.

This time, Percy snorted. _I'm sure the Fates will find some way to screw me over._

However, right now, that could all wait. Because right now, after weeks of not eating larger than beetle, he was absolutely starved for a cheeseburger from McDonalds and Hades be damned if he wasn't going to get one at this very moment, no matter that it was two in the morning.

...

The months leading up to winter break went by depressingly slow. His grades were the best, all A's– he'd be embarrassed if they were anything less considering that he was mentally twenty-six and knew Latin as well as English. Math and History were really the only two subjects that gave him a little trouble though a quick brush up by reading the textbook– thank the gods that Hecate had gotten rid of his dyslexia– and he was golden. His mom was especially proud of him, at least from what she had told him in the letters he had gotten from him.

That was something he both dreaded and anticipated. Seeing his mother again. While he had, of course, seen Grover and Chiron in this timeline, he hadn't seen either of their deaths. Grover had died during the destruction of Mount Olympus, giving his life so that demigods and other allies had more time to escape while Chiron had been personally slain by Gaea herself in a later battle.

But his mother, Sally Jackson, would be the first person he would meet in this new timeline that he had seen Gaea. Even now, he could see her, the Minotaur's axe cleaving her head off with a loud roar. She had managed to only say three last words because she was cruelly killed. "Don't give up."

He had personally slaughtered an entire legion of Gaea's finest monsters that day and even fighting the Mother of all Bitches herself to a standstill and forcing her to retreat. Despite all his power, his mom had died. That was why he dreaded seeing her again. Would this still be the same mother he had known? Or would she be different? Logically, he knew that if he traveled back in time, she would still be the same since the current path of reality was on its way to destruction in four to five years but he still just couldn't stop worrying until he saw his mom again.

However, worrying about his mom and acing classes wasn't all that he had done in the past few months. He had also trained up his body as best as he could. Running laps around Yancy Academy, sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, touching his toes, and even using the weights Yancy Academy had for the older students after most of the school had closed consisted of the majority of his training. While his powers, including blessings, and the level of control he had over each element had traveled back in time with him, the one thing that did not, was his body.

When he first awoke, he was in his twelve year old body. That body wasn't exactly suited for battling the monsters and deities he knew he would have to battle in the future so, he trained it up to a level where it could withstand such battles. It didn't hurt that his three main weapons, Fury, Fulminata, and Eradicator, had traveled to the past with him– Hecate had made sure they would– and spent an hour or so each day after classes had ended regaining his his former skills and reflexes with each weapon. His manipulation of the Mist made even Chiron and Alecto suspect nothing was amiss. He hated himself for tricking both Chiron and Grover but it was a necessity.

He also spent those few months being reacquainted with his powers. It had taken a while to get used to that tug in his gut he had had in younger days when manipulating water since in the future, that feeling had long since dissipated. However, what he found most interesting was that his power, even now, was still growing. All demigods held a shred of divinity which they inherited from their godly parent. A core, really. In full immortals and gods, this divine core is what allowed them to have domains and utilize their godly power. It was the origin of their divine power.

In demigods, it was a tiny sliver of their godly parent's core (though that sliver given to their children was swiftly regenerated) that was the basis of their own powers. In demigods, this core could only grow to a certain extent before it overwhelmed them which was why their was a natural limiter on how much power their power could grow. Even the godly heritage of demigods could only contain so much powerful before they combusted.

Percy, however, was the exception. On his mother's side, he was a distant, very distant legacy of Hecate, which explained why she could see through the Mist and why Percy could utilize the mystic arts. His father was the Lord Poseidon, one gods tied with his brothers, the Lord Zeus and the Lord Hades, in terms of power. Poseidon's domain of the ocean encompassed over 70% of the earth and that number only increased when earthquakes and sea storms were taken into account. All his demigod children (though really, it was only Percy as of 2005) were naturally more powerful than any other demigods other than that of Hades or Zeus.

However, the diluted blood of Lady Hecate, the Mistress of all Magicks, and who was once a Titaness, still flowed through his veins, however thinly. Because of his demigod and distant legacy status, his core capacity was much larger than say Thalia or Nico, both of whom were demigods without the attached legacy title. Furthermore, were the blessings he had received from Zeus, Hades, and Hecate. A little known effect of blessings was that they increased the core capacity of the demigod receiving the blessing enough to sufficiently wield the power granted by the blessing. With each blessing, his core had increased by half of the original amount.

The reason why Percy's divine core was still growing was because his older self's core had fused together with his younger self's core. _Which was still growing_.

This essentially meant that in terms of sheer power, well, the Olympians would soon find out that they weren't the only twelve– technically fourteen when counting Hades and Hestia– top dogs around. By the time he faced Ares during the day of the Summer Solstice, he would likely be able to beat the arrogant god without needed to pull him in the ocean.

_By the time I turn sixteen... I really will be able to drop a continent on Gaea._

Never let it be said that Percy didn't have a one-track mind when it came to coming up with ideas to defeat Gaea.

Namely, that he kept coming back to the same idea.

All he had to do was decide which continent he wanted to drop on Gaea.

During whatever free time he managed to scrounge up, he plotted what he had to do in this new timeline. Well, it wasn't really planning so much as imagining what he wanted to do, namely, slaughter his enemies and rescue his friends, versus what he had to do to get to that stage. Even months later, he still had absolutely no clue what he should change other than the future. Time-traveling, to his knowledge, never came with a manual.

He sighed as the bus bumped with the potholes.

But all of this, all of his attempts to keep busy, was futile when his issues were revealed during the night.

He knew that he hadn't come out of the future mentally unscathed. He knew that he had acquired traits, mainly nightmares and nearly lashing out when someone caught him by surprise.

The term given to his unwanted traits shared by many war veterans was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD.

Nowadays, he couldn't sleep for longer than a few hours each night. Within months, deep bags had developed beneath his eyes because of his few hours of sleep and because of the nightmares he endured when asleep. Nightmares of death and despair, his friends, family, and allies dying all around him. His own experiences of always being on the run, always dogged every step of the way by monsters and Giants alike. He was reliving his future in his dreams and his future was not something that induced sleep.

Another quality he had acquired was survivor's guilt. Logically, he knew that the end of the world as he knew it wasn't his fault but he couldn't help but think if he could have done something, anything, someone could have survived Gaea's purge. The first time he had screamed during the night was the last time his three roommates ever heard him scream again. Silencing magic was useful for something, at least. Often times throughout the day, he found himself staring out a window, mind wandering to all his actions and what actions he could have changed that would have let someone live a little longer.

So he wouldn't be so lonely.

"Percy!"

Percy blinked. _Ah, I guess I was doing it again._ He turned away from the window and looked at his friend who was seated next to him. "What's up, Grover?"

It had been difficult to get used to talking to someone again. He wasn't particularly social in these days of peace, in this prelude to war.

"Geez man, you're always out of it. You sure you're okay?" Grover's eyebrows furrowed worriedly at him.

Percy waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. What did you want?"

"I was asking what you were doing for winter break," Grover reiterated.

"Hang out with my mom. I haven't seen her," Percy's voice became distant, his eyes glazed as his mind focused upon the final moments of his mom, "in such a long time."

"Percy," Grover bleated nervously, "you're doing it again."

Percy blinked. "Right, sorry. Hold on... did you just _bleat_?" Percy made sure to add the appropriate amount of incredulity in his voice.

"I have a... condition," Grover bleated once more and a small smile form on the corner of Percy's lips. _Leave it to Grover to get my mood up_.

"Some condition," Percy remarked, eyeing Grover slyly. "What's it called? Goat-speak?"

"Stop making fun of me, Percy," Grover huffed.

This time, Percy really did smile.

...

Percy frowned at the sight before him. It reminded him of what he had come home to all those many years ago, or he supposed, a few months into the future, where Smelly Gabe and his... friends, if they could be called that, sat around a table playing poker and eating chips and bean dip.

He would not come home to such a sight ever again, if he had anything to say about it.

And with his Mist manipulation, he did. Thankfully, his mother wouldn't be home from work for a few more hours. She deserved much better than this.

He snapped his fingers before Smelly Gabe could open his mouth at him when he saw Percy and a glazed look came across all five, sweaty men. "Gabe Ugliano. You will never step forth in this apartment again, nor will you ever bother my mom ever again. You will learn Chinese in two months where you will then move to China never to bother my mom or I ever again. Get out of the house and don't ever let me see you here again or you will be swimming with the fishes. And trust me, they bite. Hard. The rest of you will never come here again. Leave. Now."

One by one, they all left, poker game, beer, and money all abandoned. Percy took a deep breath... and then gagged on the smell of smoke, beer, and eau de Gabe.

Another snap of his fingers began the terribly long process of purifying the entire apartment of all traces of Gabe.

Percy nodded to himself. It was the least his mom deserved.

...

Percy had been preparing himself mentally for months but he would admit to himself that when the lock to the door clicked, his heart stopped beating for a second. He was nervous.

The door creaked open slowly, increasing Percy's apprehension. His heartbeat increased rapidly.

"Hello? Percy? Anyone?" Sally's voice rang through the apartment.

"H-hi mom," Percy's voice quietly, almost timidly, answered her back.

"Percy!" Sally exclaimed as she entered Percy's field of vision.

Percy smiled as he got his first look at Sally in years. The same sparkling blue eyes, the same long, brown hair, though without the streaks of grey, the same pretty face, and smelling as if she just came from the candy shop where she worked which, she did. She was almost exactly as Percy remembered though without the worry lines he had seen in the later years.

Percy fought the urge to cry for all of ten seconds before he broke down. He wrapped his arms around her and just cried, letting all his grief, sorrow, and heartache pour out like a never-ending stream. Sally's arms wrapped around her little boy and let him cry. She was confused, yes, but she could tell that he needed this so she let him continue to cry.

They fell slumped to the floor together, Percy still crying and Sally comforting him. What felt like hours later, Percy finally let go of her.

"Are you okay now, Percy?" Sally rubbed his back.

"Y-yeah. Sorry, mom," Percy hiccuped. He felt tired now. He just wanted to sleep.

"Hush now, baby. It's okay," Sally smiled down at him. "Do you want to tell me why you were crying?"

"Not right now," Percy mumbled. "Maybe later. Cookies?"

Sally smiled at him. That was one of his mom's greatest qualities. She never pushed him for answers he didn't want to give. "Of course I can make some blue chocolate chip cookies for you, Percy. Just let me deal with Gabe first."

"Smelly Gabe's gone," Percy murmured. "He said he wanted to move China. There's divorce papers on the table. And he left you a bank account with a quarter of a million dollars."

Never let it be said that magic and Mist were useless.

Sally's blue eyes widened in surprise before she quickly schooled her features and stood up, dragging Percy along with her to the table where her eyes lit up in both relief and fear. Relief in that she would never have to put with her husband ever again– she never did wonder how he had gotten ahold of her signature– and fear in that Percy would no longer be protected by Gabe's stench of humanity.

She didn't know that in addition to visiting the bank and trading in gold bars for money in a bank account, Percy had layered the apartment with so many protective enchantments that even a god would be hard pressed to find them if he or she didn't already know where they lived. His enchantments hid his scent that well.

"Come on, Percy. Why don't you help me bake some cookies?"

"Sure, mom!"

...

A mid-January morning found Percy on yet another bus on the way to a museum, sitting next to Grover. Though Percy stared out the window yet again and his thoughts wandered to what exactly he should do, he kept an eye out on Grover so that he wouldn't be hit by that disgusting mess Nancy Bobofit called food.

Bobofit knew better than to bother the best academic achiever– Percy had smirked when he first heard what people called him– in the school. When it came to his word against hers, his word was always believed over hers. Except, of course, when it came to Mrs. Dodds. Or Alecto, as the Fury went by in her monster form.

"Are you excited for the museum?" Grover asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, yeah. Should be fun. It's already a lot better since Mr. Brunner's one of the chaperones," Percy replied. Grover nodded his head in agreement.

A silence ensued between the both of them though the bus ride itself was rather rowdy.

"Hey, Percy?"

"Yes?"

"I don't want to sound rude but what's wrong with you?"

Grover gulped as Percy turned to look at him eerily with his sea-green eyes. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by that?"

"I mean," Grover began, "that ever since a couple weeks into the school year, you've been acting really strangely. I mean, you're always staring out windows and sometimes you just stare at me or Ch- I mean, Mr. Brunner as if we're about to die or something. And then, there was that one time you just started screaming during the night."

"Hmm. How should I explain this?" Percy asked aloud. "Well, maybe I'll tell you in a few years or so."

"You know you can tell me anything, right Percy? I mean, I am your best friend," Grover said to Percy seriously.

"I know."

"But you do know you're my only friend, right?"

"Oh, look, we're here," Grover said as the bus came to a stop, rescuing himself from responding.

The two of them, demigod and satyr, were the last ones off the bus, following the gaggle of eleven, twelve, and thirteen year old students as they entered the museum. Mr. Brunner began explaining the various displays at the museum. Percy calmed his breathing as the hour which had given him his first look into the world of demigods grew closer and closer.

"Ah, Percy. Perhaps you would like to explain who this is and why he is important," Mr. Brunner called.

Percy blinked. _Seriously? I'm not doing anything and I still get called on for this question?_

Percy looked at the image. "That's a painting of the Titan King, Kronos, eating his children, the Olympians. Well, really, he only ate Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Hades, and Poseidon, all of whom were his children. It would be important to know if you planned on pursuing a degree in classical archaeology since knowing the background of the land you plan on digging artifacts would be pretty important to know." Percy grinned. "Or if you somehow manage to get involved in a secret world where the Greek gods still exist, well, it would be important to know something about Greek mythology."

Mr. Brunner's eyes widened ever so slightly. Grover whimpered. Mrs. Dodds's eyes narrowed in malice and glee as if she had found out about some sort of secret but she was unhappy about it.

On the bright side, Percy made half the class first.

"Yes, well, full credit, Mr. Jackson. Excellent work," Mr. Brunner commented after a few moment's pause. "Kronos did in fact eat five of his six children. Fortunately for the youngest child, Zeus, Rhea, the Queen of the Titans, hid Zeus for many years, substituting him for a rock. Later on, Zeus would go on to become a jester of sorts for the Titan Court, tricking his father to throw up Zeus's five siblings through a mixture of mustard and wine. The five gods had been growing up in their father's stomach all well though not happy, and took up arms against their father which resulted in a long war known as the Titanomachy which the Olympians then won, assuming their domains and mantles of godhood. On that happy note, I do believe it is time to break for lunch."

"You ever get the idea that Mr. Brunner talks about the gods as if Greek gods are alive today?" Percy asked Grover as they walked out of the museum and to the picnic tables the museum had set up for having lunch outdoors.

"Mr. Brunner doesn't believe in Greek gods," Grover said, nervously eyeing the sky.

_Oh, Grover, you really need to learn how to lie better. How did I fall for your acting skills the first time? Oh wait... I really was twelve at that time._

Percy decided not to torment Grover by asking how exactly Grover knew Mr. Brunner didn't believe in Greek gods. Instead, Percy ate his Lunchables crackers– having remembered the previous day that the Lunchables crackers Nancy used to pelt pigeons would make him crave his own Lunchables snack– and gave the apple he had brought to Grover, who was into eating healthy. Except when it came to enchiladas.

Nancy Bobofit tossed a banana peel at Grover. Percy sighed. _I might as well get this over with._ Manipulating the water from the nearby fountain, he wrapped tendrils of water around the chubby redheaded girl and reeled her in. _Is it wrong that I feel even better about pushing her into the fountain the second time around? _

"Percy pushed me!" Nancy pointed at Percy.

Percy glared at her. He had to put up at least a token effort of denial. "Don't you ever use your brain, Baboon- Bobofit? How the hell could I push you from all the way over here? Don't be an idiot!"

To his surprise, everyone but Bobofit's cronies believed in him. Unfortunately, that still didn't deter Mrs. Dodds from pointing at him with her index finger and saying in her sickly sweet voice, "Now, honey. Come with me."

"That's annoying," Percy clutched his ears in mock pain.

Grover did not find his antics amusing. So unfunny that he forgot to try and take the blame for Percy. Or maybe it just didn't cross his mind.

Thanks a lot, Grover. _Well, if I do this a third time, maybe you'll remember,_ Percy thought glumly as he followed his math teacher who "somehow" managed to climb the steps in the span of a two seconds. _This is going to be a huge pain. I don't want to tip my hand too soon– well, at all really– so Chiron better give me Riptide soon._

Percy eyed Mr. Brunner who calmly read his book. _That's right, Chiron. Keep ignoring that you're sending an untrained demigod to what could technically be their death. But, of course, you probably don't Mrs. Dodds is a Fury. This is annoying._

He had absolutely no hope that Mrs. Dodds had called him inside to buy a new t-shirt for Nancy Bobofit.

They entered an empty room– the same one as last time, Percy absentmindedly noted– where Percy was nearest to the door and Mrs. Dodds farthest away, likely to have more room to transform into her monster self.

Percy turned to face the Fury still in human form. "Is the part where I have to try and seduce you for a better grade in math? Because if so, I should probably go. I mean, I do have the best math grade of all your classes." Percy internally shuddered at the thought of getting it on with a Fury. Yuck!

"Give me the lightning bolt, Perseus Jackson, and I promise you, your death will be swift," Mrs. Dodds screeched.

"Good thing you weren't a science teacher otherwise we'd have all failed you class," Percy shot back. "You can't steal a lightning bolt!"

Mrs. Dodds human flesh rippled before expunging outwards in a display of gore, blood, and guts. Obviously, it was a trick of the Mist but Percy made sure that he looked appropriately horrified. "What the fuck?"

"Die, honey!" Alecto, who looked like a leathery, overgrown grey bat, charged through the air to him.

Percy immediately rolled to the left, avoiding a death by claws and teeth. "That's actually a better look on you! But I still wouldn't seduce you!"

Alecto screeched in anger at the comment before sharply turning around, intent on clawing out Percy's eyes for what he said.

Percy didn't want to reveal that he could create water from the surrounding air, or that he could control air, or that he could just finish off the Fury by launching an earthen pillar at her, so Percy was pretty relieved when Mr. Brunner shouted to him, "What ho, Percy!" and tossed him a pen that he instinctively uncapped and sliced Alecto in half.

Percy blinked at the Mist that attempted to impress its will upon his mind. _Wow, Chiron's pretty quick with that stuff._ He easily dispelled the Mist. Percy grinned at the pen which he placed in his pocket. _Nope, Chiron doesn't get this pen back this time. This is my pen now. Glad to have you back, Riptide. _

Percy left the museum without Mrs. Dodds and with his trusty, celestial bronze sword, Riptide, in its pen form, and in his pocket. He sidestepped Mr. Brunner's attempt to get his pen back– and it wasn't a difficult feat considering that Mr. Brunner was in a wheelchair and he was not.

"Hey, Grover, where's Mrs. Kerr?" Percy asked him. Percy hadn't remembered her name from roughly fifteen years ago but the Mist Chiron had tried to impose upon him had told him all he needed to know.

A relieved expression flashed across Grover's face for several seconds before he finally managed a weak smile. "Y-yeah, she's went inside with Nancy to get her a new t-shirt."

"Oh, well, lucky her. I guess we should head back inside for the last part of our tour," Percy nodded to Mr. Brunner who was rounding up the students.

"Right, let's go then. We don't want to get any detentions."

...

The follow four and a half months saw Percy doing the exact same thing he had done before winter break. Namely, training and getting into shape. At least he had Riptide again. Gaea had taken it upon her awakening and subsequent destruction of Mount Olympus as, in her mind, proof of her superiority and dominance over all.

That bitch wouldn't be taking Riptide this time around.

Of course, more annoyingly, he had to deal with Grover constantly snooping through his things in search of the pen he had taken from Mr. Brunner and never quite given back. It was amusing the first time though Percy didn't really like it when anyone even tried to take his things but it got old fast.

So, each time he caught Grover snooping around his things, he threw an apple at his head. The same apple since he didn't want to waste money buying half a dozen apples on a daily basis.

_Note to self: negative reinforcement does not work on satyrs._

Percy had gained a fine layer of muscle thanks to all the exercise he had diligently done over the school year. It was a thin layer since he was barely in the puberty stage of his life– _I have to go through puberty again?!_– but it was still slightly visible. He had gotten used to swinging weapons around doing all sorts of acrobatics so he would be prepared for any long-lasting battle he hadn't prepared for. Percy, of course, still continued to practice his elemental powers though making sure to obscure all his practice through the Mist.

The end of the year exams had gone the same way as they did last time only he did better and he didn't call one of his teachers an old sot. Mr. Brunner had told him, after acing his Latin exam, that he didn't really belong in this school– though Percy hadn't actually been expelled from the school though he knew that he wouldn't be coming back if he wanted to see Tyson again– and Percy had responded by telling him, "I stole your pen!"

That would teach him.

"Percy!"

Percy sighed. It seemed like every time he was on a bus, Grover would always shout his name to the heavens to get his attention and disrupt his reflections of the past courtesy of his PTSD. How the hell was he supposed to cope when people– Grover– kept bothering him. More importantly, how the hell was he supposed to keep making funny faces at the three old women knitting a huge pair of socks and snipping someone's string of life?

"Yeah, Grover?"

"We've been sitting here in the heat since the bus broke down. Don't you think we should get out now?"

"The bus will be fixed soon," Percy said. As soon as he finished speaking, the engine of the bus roared. The crowd gathered around the bus cheered before piling back in the bus. Soon enough, they were on their way.

"How'd you do that?" Grover asked, awed at his prediction.

Percy shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe I have some sort of prophetic talent?"

As Grover contemplated Percy's words while munching to himself, Percy sniggered to himself. It wasn't right to give Grover false hints but he couldn't help it. Reliving his past has made him remember practically everything down to the tiniest detail. When he had sat on the bus, Percy had remembered that the bus had broken down for about twenty minutes. So, he waited. And cooled himself down immensely by creating a personal breeze. He would have given Grover some of the same breeze but he was afraid that Grover would break his teeth if he bit that apple any harder.

"Hey, Percy," Grover said casually, "mind waiting for me at the station? I have something I need to tell you and your mother."

"Nope." Percy turned to the window and began gazing through it once more.

"W-what? But why not? It's a matter of life and death!" Grover sounded as if he were about to cry.

"Well, if it's a matter of life ands death, you should probably tell me now," Percy turned to face Grover.

"You're a demigod," Grover blurted out.

Percy blinked. Then, he turned back to face the window. "Okay."

"W-what? That's it? Aren't you going to ask what a demigod is?" Grover stuttered.

"Nope."

"B-but don't you want to know what being a demigod means?"

"I kind of figured it out already. I assume like my namesake, Perseus, and other heroes like Hercules, I'm basically supposed to kill monsters and, if there's a war, sacrifice the entrails of my enemies to a god or goddess of my choice."

Percy had said it so blandly that it took a moment for Grover to respond. "No! I mean, yes! Yes but no! Yes to the first part about killing monsters but no to sacrificing the entrails of your enemies to the gods. They like it if you burn food for them instead."

"Okay, is that it?"

"No! I need to tell your mom so that she can drop us off at Camp Half-Blood!"

"What? You don't have your own ride or something? I thought satyrs would have something like that if they're scouting out demigods from all over the country," Percy said.

"W-what? How do you know that? Why aren't you surprised at anything I say?" Grover questioned quickly.

"Well, first off, once you've killed a Fury and have a pen that you almost cut yourself on one day when trying to do homework, you get the idea that there's something amiss," Percy answered as he took a card and pamphlet out of his pocket. "That and I decided that if you could go through my things looking for that sword-pen, then I could go through your things."

Grover blushed.

"You should have listened to the apple the first time I threw it."

"Shut up, Percy."

...

Like last time, Percy ditched Grover almost immediately upon touching sidewalk.

"Hi, mom!" Percy shouted throughout the apartment as he walked through the doorway.

"Welcome home, Percy," Sally stepped out of the kitchen and hugged her son. "Ready to leave? You can unpack later."

"To Montauk? Yes! I packed my bag a week ago! Let's go!" Percy shouted.

"All right, all right, let me just change clothes and then we can be on our way," Sally kissed Percy's forehead before moving to her room.

The doorbell rang soon after Sally went to her room.

"Do you mind getting that, honey? Sally called out.

"I got it, mom!" Percy said as he went to the door and opened it.

A huffing Grover stood before him, a hand against the wall supporting himself upright. "Hah! You thought you could get away from me, Percy? You gotta-"

"No, we aren't interested in listening to one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Thanks anyways," Percy slammed the door in his face.

"Honey, who was that?" Sally asked.

Percy sighed. Time for the truth. "It was a satyr who keeps telling me I'm a demigod. I mean, you're as a beautiful as a goddess mom, but I think he means something else!"

Sally came rushing to Percy like a typhoon. "What did you say?!"

"You're as beautiful as a goddess?"

"The other thing!"

"I really want to go to Montauk?"

"Percy!"

"A satyr keeps telling me that I'm a demigod?"

Sally paled as she opened the door. She paled even further when she saw Grover through the Mist.

"I had hoped...," Sally trailed off.

"If it makes you feel any better, Sally, you lasted longer than most in hiding your child," Grover offered.

"My mom's the best," Percy agreed. "Now, go away Grover. We're going to Montauk."

"No, Percy," Sally sighed tiredly. "We're going to Camp Half-Blood."

"Are you sure? Because Montauk might be on the way and we could hang around for the night," Percy suggested with an innocent smile.

"Yes, honey, I'm sure," Sally said. "Let me get my purse."

"I'll get my bag," Percy sighed. He had been looking forward to spending sometime with his mom before having to deal with the mess that was Camp Half-Blood but it looked more and more like that wasn't going to happen.

Maybe he shouldn't have made all those funny faces at the Fates...?

Nah.

So off they went, Percy taking shotgun, as his mom and Grover explained as much as they could about what being a demigod meant and entailed.

"Do you know who his godly parent is, Sally?" Grover asked.

"Yes...," Sally replied hesitatingly.

Percy nodded his head. "Poseidon."

The car screeched to a halt. Sally turned to look at her son, her son whom she had become more closer to than ever before since that time he had come home and cried in her arms. "How do you know that, Percy?"

"Well, you guys met at Montauk. And you always say he's lost at sea. Should I think I'm the son of Triton or that dolphin god?" Percy asked.

Sally sighed. "Percy is right. His father is Poseidon."

"B-but it's forbidden for one of the Big Three to sire a child!" Grover protested.

"Well, here I am. Moving on," Percy said.

And it was at that point, so near to Camp Half-Blood, that tragedy struck.

A thunderbolt descended from the heavens and slammed into the front of Sally's car, causing it to topple over and roll many meters to the base of the hill.

"What the fuck was that?" Percy recovered first being so used to being in hostile situations.

"Language, Percy!" Sally managed to groan.

Grover moaned something about enchiladas. Or tinned cans. Or something about both. Percy wasn't really paying attention at this point.

Percy crawled out of the car, resting for a few short seconds, before managing to pull Sally and Grover out.

A loud, mooing sound ended the silence followed by the crash of several trees falling to the ground. A huge, furry figure emerged from the tree line, roaring and charging at the first thing it saw. Percy. The thing, which Percy knew to be the Minotaur, was twice as tall as any averaged sized man, huge horns jutting from its head, a bovine face, with rippling muscles that would put professional bodybuilders to shame, and wearing, of all things, a bright, white Fruit of the Looms underwear that really brought out his brown fur.

Percy laughed at him despite it charging at him. "You're the Minotaur? You look pathetic!"

"Percy!" Sally shouted. "Don't say its name! Names have power! Call it by Pasiphae's son!"

"Mom! I don't think I can pronounce that name! Besides, it'll die soon enough so it won't really matter."

Percy uncapped Riptide and began walking slowly towards the charging Minotaur. Three and a half feet of sharpened Celestial Bronze appeared in his hands. His plan was far more simple than the first time he had faced off against the Minotaur. He called it Percy's Excellent Plan in how to Defeat the Minotaur in Three Easy Steps.

Step one: Allow the Minotaur to get in close.

Step two: Use earth powers to trip the Minotaur.

Step three: Impale Riptide on the falling Minotaur.

What Percy failed to take into account was the Minotaur's weight so when Percy impaled Riptide in the Minotaur's heart, he didn't realize that it was only the Minotaur turning into golden dust at the very last moment that saved him from being crushed under the Minotaur's massive weight.

_Note to self: Do not underestimate monsters even if you've slaughtered them for years._

Percy frowned as he turned back to his mother. _That was too easy. _Then, he saw something that made his heart stop.

Three skeleton warriors, all dressed in Revolutionary War outfits, capturing Percy's mother in a sphere of golden light. One of them actually had the audacity to salute at him before disappearing back into the earth.

Minutes passed as Percy stared blankly at where his once laid. Then, a white-hot rage filled him, affecting his immediate surroundings. The nearby seaside began stirring and waves began crashing furiously against the sand. But more importantly, and what attracted many demigods to him was the absolutely massive earthquake that began. The very earth itself shook in tandem with Percy's fury with enough power that many mistook it for one of Poseidon's strongest earthquakes. Cabins nearly collapsed, held upright only by the enchantments placed on each cabin. The lava wall, archery range, and arena all sunk several images.

For too long, Percy had only experienced loneliness. But it had been a while since something had seriously pissed him off. Like Hades taking his mother. He liked the guy– in the future– but the present Hades was an idiot and a bastard. A bastard who was going to get his ass handed to him.

And finally, a good many demigods heard Percy's voice and flinched at the absolute rage in his voice.

_"YOU MOTHERFUCKER, HADES! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!"_

~A78 Ch2~

**A/N:**

**So, this was updated again. I should mention that this won't be a priority (though really this has no meaning since apparently I just update whatever strikes my fancy at the time).**

**Yes, Percy curses. Yes, Percy will be powerful though I will try not to make him too powerful. And yes, Percy has issues. Issues that while won't affect his judgement will have many people worrying about him. Especially at the end which I've already planned out. Now I just need everything in between (which I've somewhat planned).**

**MODDEF: I think so though probably not the House of Hades or Blood of Olympus since I haven't read them yet. Who knows? Maybe I'll read them in between chapters of this story.**

**I'm happy that so many of you have taken an interest in this fic. Hopefully, it suits your fancy. **

**I happen to like reviews (hint, hint). **

**In case you didn't get the hint, review! Though say what you like or criticize it. I always enjoy hearing what all of you think about my writing.**

**Also, the pairing(s) are still up in the air. Feel free to suggest something.**

**I think that's about it so...**

**As always,**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Quests, Flags, and a Stalker

~A78 Ch3~

Percy soon calmed himself down. The earth stopped trembling. Waves stopped furiously pounding the shoreline. Campers, seeing the unknown calm down, began moving downhill towards he, Grover, and the flaming wreck of a car.

Percy ignored them, instead focusing upon the place he had last seen him mother.

Then, he realized something.

A thunderbolt had slammed into the car.

And there was only one Olympian who could control thunder.

The waves began slamming into the shore even harder than before. Cracks formed in the earth, some unintentionally sucking in demigods, as the earth shook with enough force to be felt in Manhattan. Coincidentally, that earthquake would register as a 4.1 on the Richer Scale.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER ZEUS! WHEN I SEE YOU, YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOUR ASS KICKED TOO, YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"

A thunderbolt descended from the heavens, dropping down on Percy. He lasted just over a minute before he finally fell into blissful unconsciousness.

The campers were relieved that the world finally calmed down.

...

_One day later..._

Percy would never have lasted long in the post-war world if some stupid thing like a common thunderbolt could knock him out for too long. Usually, he would have been able to shrug most thunderbolts off like a winter coat in midsummer since Porphyrion had taken to throwing the damned things like candy on Halloween at him every time they met. Since pain was a mental concept and he was well-versed in the mental arts thanks to the Titaness Mnemosyne, Percy usually just slid the pain to a dark corner of his mind until he safely escaped.

Then, he would allow it to come to the forefront of his mind and scream for hours. Because, while Percy could push the pain aside for a while eventually, it built up and it would release whether he wanted it to or not. Of course, he made sure not to push the pain aside too often otherwise since like the Curse of Achilles, it would make him beyond belief but also because while Percy could ignore pain for a while, it still affected his physical body. If he began bleeding, his body would still slow. If his arm was chopped off, he still wouldn't be able to use it for a while. If one of his legs was hacked off, he wouldn't be able to walk properly– though he still would be able to hop. If he lost too much blood, he would still die.

If a thunderbolt slammed into him and continuously electrocuted him, ignoring pain or not, he would still be rendered unconscious.

On the bright side, however, he usually recovered fairly quickly from most non-lethal or debilitating wounds. He was experienced enough, by the time Gaea had begun hunting down demigods and whatever resistance that attempted to oppose her, to avoid wounds like losing an arm, leg, eye, and so on. He had built up a resistance of sorts to most elemental attacks.

Porphyrion had constantly thrown thunderbolts at him every time they fought– considerable more powerful than a Zeus without his Master Bolt– and eventually he had been able to last longer and longer each time. He already held immunity towards most if not all water based attacks since he was able to alter the course of a water-based attack long before it reached him. That included Khione and her pesky ice attacks. He could usually fight off most wind or dark elemental attacks though he likely wouldn't be able to fight off Zeus or Hades. Percy could stop any earth based attacks– except for Gaea's own attacks though he was able to counter her to a fair degree– thanks to his inherent earth powers from his father, the Earthshaker, and the blessing of Hades, who controlled the earth as part of the Underworld. He hadn't really encountered anyone with fire powers other than allies but he was confident that his water powers could counter fire. And that his earth powers could smother Greek fire.

Essentially, this all meant, that his resistance was pretty high. Which explained why it only took a day to recover from one of Zeus's thunderbolts.

Percy's sea-green eyes snapped open. They immediately took in his surroundings, a learned instinct from his days in a post-war society that not even months of peace could break.

_Wooden cabin. Bunks. Chairs. Pillows. Bandages_. He inhaled deeply. _The smell of blue chocolate chip cookies. That means ambrosia. So I'm in the Big House. The infirmary_.

Percy blinked as he realized that he was wrapped in white bandages. Well, his chest area anyways. His pants were still on him. _Thank the gods._

Slowly, he sat up. His body groaned in protest but that was to be expected considering his de-aged body. It wasn't accustomed to the type of soreness and pain his older body was used to. No matter. He didn't feel any pain. Percy was certain that he could deal with a little soreness. He slowly swung his feet off the bed, making sure that he didn't feel any pain with each movement. He drank the glass of nectar that was on his bedside table before standing up and stretching. Feeling neither pain or soreness, he ripped off his bandages and tilted his head downwards to assess the damage.

His skin was red and irritated but nothing looked beyond reparable. That was good. He felt a slight hint of pain as he touched his reddened skin with his fingers but he was able to easily brush the tingle of pain aside. An orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt told him that the shirt he was wearing when he had first come to Camp Half-Blood was likely tattered. He slowly put on the t-shirt. No use in unnecessarily causing himself pain no matter how small.

He walked normally, since he didn't feel any pain doing so, outside the door where he was greeted by three very familiar faces. One was his friend for the past school year, Grover. One was the warm if grim face of Chiron in his wheelchair. And the final was a blonde with narrowed grey eyes. An all to familiar face.

_Annabeth..._

Percy's eyes glazed over before immediately pushing the unwanted recollection of Chiron and Annabeth's deaths aside. Now, right in front of them, was not the time to recall such a thing.

Percy's raised an eyebrow, recalling that he was supposed to be at least somewhat confused as to how he got here. But, he couldn't really bring himself to care right now. "Something the matter?"

"You're not supposed to be conscious yet," Annabeth spoke, eyeing him with a calculating gaze.

"I don't care what you think I'm supposed to be doing," Percy responded, quite coldly, if he was honest with himself. He supposed that it was likely because she was his ex-girlfriend and because she had broken up with him. But he couldn't quite bring himself to care. "Where is my mom?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him. "There's no need to be rude."

"And there's no need to say everything that pops into your brain. Like whether or not I'm supposed to be conscious or not." Percy internally winced. He really shouldn't be so cold with a twelve-year old girl who technically hadn't done anything yet. He resolved to try to be nicer. If he hadn't already broken that bridge.

Chiron interrupted, having just recovered from Percy's coldness. He wondered what had gotten into Percy. He had never seen the demigod ever act so harsh before. Perhaps it was his mother's death...

"Grover has told me that you know of demigods," Chiron said. "Why don't you come with me, Perseus, and I will explain more about being a demigod."

Percy blinked before nodding his head. "Very well."

Percy nodded to Grover as he walked past he and Annabeth. "Nice to see you conscious and not mumbling about tin cans."

Grover blushed. Annabeth huffed as he ignored her. _He's pretty rude to ignore me._

Following Chiron allowed Percy enough time to reminisce. To reminisce of the day Annabeth had broken up with him.

_"W-Wise Girl?" Percy asked, wondering why Annabeth had pulled away from his embrace._

_"I-I'm sorry, Percy, but I don't feel comfortable with you touching me," Annabeth said, retreating a few steps from him._

_"But- but why?" Percy felt hurt. Why would she feel such a thing?_

_Annabeth sighed. It looked like she had been preparing what she was going to say for a while to Percy but looked like she still couldn't come to terms with what she was going to say. Instead, she faltered in her rehearsed speech and said a single word. "Tartarus."_

_Percy stiffened. A cold sweat broke upon his brow. Why did she bring that up? "What about Tartarus?"_

_"You changed in there, Percy. I changed in there. We both changed in there," Annabeth rambled. "And not for the better."_

_"What are you talking about?" Percy asked, a confused expression._

_When Annabeth saw his cute, confused look, she nearly said to just forget about what she just said but she caught herself in time. This conversation had been a long time coming. Two months ago, she and Percy had escaped Tartarus. Two months ago marked the beginning of the end of their relationship._

_Percy had fought like a vicious monster in Tartarus. He had slain many monsters but he had slain them in a way reminiscent of a psychopath. There was killing monsters because they threatened to kill you and then, there was killing monsters by stabbing them repeatedly, by boiling their blood, by dunking them into pits of Hellfire, by absolutely slaughtering them, all with a twisted smile on his face._

_Even after their escape, Percy had only marginally toned down his killing of monsters. Instead of a deranged grin, it was a slight satisfied curl of his lips. Instead of stabbing them, it was cutting off their limbs. Instead of boiling their blood, it was drowning them. Instead of pushing them into pits of Hellfire, it was opening cracks in the earth and sending them merrily on their way down to Tartarus._

_Percy, Annabeth had concluded after two months, was changed for the worse. Tartarus had changed his very psyche more than she could have ever imagined. She no longer felt safe every time he hugged her, no longer felt like she loved him when he kissed her. There just wasn't the same love there had been when they had begun dating after the end of the Second Titanomachy._

_But Annabeth couldn't know that Percy hadn't changed all that much. That he was still the same, sweet, caring, loyal son of Poseidon that she had come to know over the years. That the only reason he had been vicious to each and every monster they had come across was because, out of her earshot, they had threatened to kill her, slice her into itty bitty pieces and eat her like a delectable dessert. That he had turned truly angry only when they had threatened her and had been so vicious so that they wouldn't even think of attempting to find them._

_And that he had only been vicious to the monsters once out of Tartarus because those monsters he had encountered had been the very same monsters that threatened them in Tartarus._

_But he accepted her reasons for their breakup without complaint._

_He had seen her eyes, eyes that told him that she had already made up her mind and there was absolutely nothing that he could do or say to convince her otherwise. He had already lost her and there was nothing he could do to get her back._

_And his lack or protest had only reaffirmed her decision to break up with him. After all, the old Percy would have done his utmost best to convince her not to break up with him because of his fatal flaw._

_But if his fatal flaw was no longer loyalty then what was it?_

Percy immediately snapped to attention when he and Chiron arrived in the main room of the Big House where Dionysus, the lazy, uncaring bastard he was, was sitting around a table with one of his sons, Pollux, if Percy recalled correctly, attempting to teach his son how to play pinochle. He was failing miserably if his rapid drinking of Diet Coke was anything to go by.

Percy blinked. He was pretty sure that he wasn't one of the demigods who had died in the Titan War.. In fact, now that he thought about it, it had been his brother, Castor, who had died in the Battle of the Labyrinth, and that Pollux had grieved over him immensely. Later, Pollux had fought bravely in the Battle of Olympus. However, it was only later on, after Gaea had won and they, the demigods and gods, had been on the run for a couple years, that he had died in an ambush led by Gration. His death had been what led to Dionysius to foolishly charge against his Giant counterparts when he had encountered them only two weeks later, and had marked the end of the pitiful resistance they had put up.

"This is Mr. D, the Camp Director," Chiron introduced the pudgy, older man seated at the table.

"That's nice and all," Percy said, remembering just in time that he still wasn't supposed to know Chiron's name. "But why the hell are you here? I don't think you're exactly capable of teaching people how to fight in a wheelchair."

Chiron blinked. "My heavens, I completely forgot to introduce myself." At this point, the Mist faded around the centaur and he sat up from his wheelchair, displaying his horse's body and man's torso. His tail swished from side to side naturally. "I, child, am Chiron, trainer of heroes."

"Oh, so you're a four-legged satyr."

Chiron was about to chide Percy about his forgetfulness in his class before he noticed the playful grin on his face. Chiron smiled. "I see that even after knowing all this, you're humor is as droll as ever."

Percy turned to face Mr. D and his son, a smaller, younger, blonder version of his father down to the same leafy green eyes. "Nice to meet you both. My name is Percy Jackson."

Before either of them could respond, Percy turned to face Chiron once more. "Now then, Chiron, are all the entrances to the Underworld still in Greece or is there one here in America?"

Chiron grimaced. He had hoped that Percy wouldn't broach this subject quite yet. "Now Percy, you don't know that Lord Hades kill your mother."

"I know that he didn't kill my mom, Chiron," Percy said. Chiron let loose a sigh of relief. "He took her with those damn skeletons. One of them saluted me before they went back to the hellhole they came from. And he didn't do it alone. If that asshole Zeus hadn't thrown a thunderbolt at the car we were in, we would have gotten away before that Minotaur came anywhere near us. And before those skeletons had a chance to take my mom."

Thunder rumbled in the sky warningly.

"Percy," Chiron eyed the sky nervously even though it wasn't visible from inside the Big House. "Here in camp, we do not refer to the King of the Gods by any derogatory names here in camp. Nor any other gods."

"Well, then it's a good thing that I don't plan on staying here for very long. I have to rescue my mom and I will do it with or without your help," Percy replied unhesitatingly.

"You don't know where the Underworld is located," Chiron pointed out logically.

"I think I could make an educated guess. If Olympus is above the Empire State Building and it's in the east then I'm sure at least one of the entrances of the Underworld is opposite on the West Coast. Probably San Fransisco or Los Angeles," Percy told him.

Chiron looked stunned. "H-how did you know that?"

Percy smirked. "Grover has journals all about the demigod world. Apparently he reviews them in his free time so that he knows what to tell a demigod if he spots them."

_I was pretty surprised about that._

"That level of dedication astounds me. Though, perhaps, it is not the best idea if people go through his things," Chiron said aloud before he switched gears. "Regardless, it would take you weeks to travel across North America. You have no money. No way of transportation. You would die within days of leaving camp."

Percy narrowed his eyes at the centaur. A hand slowly slid within his pocket, fingering his pen-sword Riptide. Percy's eyes immediately widened. _What the fuck am I doing? Did I really just consider attacking Chiron just because he wouldn't let me have my way? Shit... I have more problems than I thought I did if I considered attacking my friend... _Percy immediately took his hands out of his pockets, leaving the pen where it was.

However, he could not afford to waste any time. He had things to do. People, or rather, gods to contact. _But I can't do that if I don't first make friends with people... again. I guess I should stay here a while before going to rescue my mother– as painful as that sounds._

"Fine," Percy let out a long-suffering sigh. "I'll stay for a week then you tell me where the Underworld is."

"Three weeks."

"A week and a half."

"Two and a half weeks."

"Two weeks."

"You have yourself a deal, Mr. Jackson," Chiron told him. He had wanted Percy to stay longer but the child's eyes told him that it was futile to convince him any longer. "Come, take a seat, and I'll explain to you more of the Greek world than Grover's journals can tell you."

Percy nodded politely and listened with only one ear as his mind wandered to the real reason he had wanted to leave camp other than to rescue his mother.

He didn't want to see any more campers.

He didn't want to relive their deaths every time he met a demigod.

...

This time around, because he had woken up two days earlier and because the demigod had been sitting at the table learning how to play pinochle rather than Grover playing with Dionysius, Pollux had been chosen to guide him around camp. He was, along with his twin brother Castor, two years older than Percy, a couple inches taller, and was surprisingly level-headed for a son of the god of madness. Though, Percy supposed as he took in the sight of demigods crawling up the lava wall, that it wasn't a bad thing. Strangely enough, Clarisse and her lackeys hadn't come to bother him this time around. Maybe they had only come last time around because Ares Annabeth had shown him around and Ares and Athena had a rivalry in terms of who was the better war god?

Finally, Castor ended the tour of the camp by showing him the cabins where demigods of their respective godly parents resided. Percy grinned widely as he took in the sight of Zeus's cabin in the center of the U formation of the cabins. A devious, insidious idea popped into his mind.

A small tremor originating from the earth was all the notice Pollux had before a pillar of rock and earth, molded into the shape of a very large stalagmite impaled Zeus's cabin, creating a large hole in the center of the large cabin before the marble the cabin was made of began spraying down to earth as it was utterly decimated. A large head in the likeliness of Zeus fell to the ground in front of them. The sound of breaking marble attracted many campers, all of whom stared in horror at the destruction of Zeus's cabin.

Finally, as the stalagmite of earth reached thirty feet, Percy willed it to stop growing. Everyone stared in all and horror at the wrecked cabin and the pillar of earth protruding from it. Finally, Percy willed the earthen spire to come crashing down to earth, completely obliterating the rest of Zeus's cabin and burying it from sight in a mountain of rubble.

_Serves that bastard right. I can't actually kick his ass as much as I want to but if he wants to kill me, well, I think it's only right to take things away from him._

Percy broke the stunned silence. "I take it that that isn't a common occurrence then?"

Pollux slowly shook his head.

Thunder roared in the sky and dark clouds began quickly forming and gathering in the sky.

"I guess Hades is mad at Zeus for some reason," Percy commented innocently.

Immediately, the clouds stopped forming and the thunder stopped as if they couldn't believe the words coming out from the demigod's mouth.

Percy internally smirked as the rumor he had begun spread through the gathered campers like a wildfire. Several children of Athena present instantly provided the logic behind why Hades would do such a thing– that Hades was mad about still not being allowed to enter Olympus except on the winter solstice, that Hades was mad about not having a cabin in Camp Half-Blood, that Hades just wanted to piss Zeus off– whatever, Percy didn't really care.

What he did care about was that the earth powers he had displayed the day previous– essentially earth-shaking– was completely forgotten about. Because Hades controlled most of the earth and he was, in the eyes of most demigods, a bitter god, Hades instantly became the culprit of this... "atrocity".

And since all the demigods believed this, Percy himself became untouchable lest Zeus attack him for no reason they could see.

Zeus wasn't an idiot despite the stupid actions he had taken in the previous timeline. He had witnessed Percy's earth-shaking powers the previous night and knew that Percy had destroyed his cabin. But unless he wanted to be see as a bad god, he couldn't quite destroy him... yet.

_Knowing Zeus though, he'll find a way to make my life more difficult. Too bad for him that I've already been through hell. Besides, he definitely deserved it. That's what you get for being an asshole, Zeus._

It was lucky that Percy had learned to shield his mind from the gods.

"So, should we move on?" Percy asked Pollux quietly.

"Y-yeah, we better," Pollux replied, slowly moving away while still taking backwards glances at the destroyed cabin.

Eventually, they arrived at the Hermes cabin where Percy would be staying until his father decided to claim him.

_Which should be when he eventually decides that he needs help in retrieving the Master Bolt. Travis and Conner better not try to steal anything from me again otherwise we're going to have... problems._

Percy did not take kindly to having his things taken.

Eventually, a college aged man, well muscled, tall, with sandy blonde hair, amused blue eyes, and a roguish though sneaky look that could make most girls and women swoon. A pale yet deep scar ran across the bottom of his left eye down to his chin, gotten from Ladon, if Percy recalled correctly. Thankfully, since for Percy, his death had happened long ago, so he wasn't even hit with a faint recollection of Luke's death.

"Hey Pollux," Luke glanced a Percy with an excited grin. "I take it your the new guy?"

Percy nodded. "I'm Percy. Percy Jackson."

"Luke Castellan," Luke introduced himself. "Did you guys see what happened to Zeus's cabin?"

"See it? We were there when it began!" Pollux exclaimed. "Everyone thinks it was Hades that did it because he can control the earth."

"Yeah," Luke mused, mostly to himself. "Hades. Right."

He soon shook himself from his thoughts. "Thanks for showing him around already, Pollux. I'll take it from here. Come on, Percy, let me show you where you're going to sleep."

Percy entered the Hermes cabin and saw that it was just as cramped as he remembered. Though there weren't many people within the cabin, seeing as how the destruction of the Zeus cabin had attracted the majority of them, the beds were all still stacked almost side by side. Even then, there wasn't enough beds for each demigod so there were a great many sleeping bags on the ground in addition to several clothes, a couple weapons, and many belongings strewn about.

"I guess Hermes has a lot of kids, huh?"

Luke's expression darkened for a single before adopting his easy-going facade. Percy would have missed it if he had been twelve. "No. You might have noticed that there were only twelve cabins but the thing is, that there are children from more gods than just the Olympians."

"So how come they don't have their own cabin?" Percy asked quizzically.

Luke lowered his voice, "Well, let's just say that the Olympians aren't really a big fan of sharing."

Percy frowned but said nothing aloud. _Shit, I forgot that the Olympians are all being inconsiderate bastards at this point. Hold on, I'm going to be asked to retrieve the Master Bolt in about two weeks. Well, no one ever said I would do it for free. So I'll definitely ask for the cabins then. And maybe try to get that blessing from Zeus. But I should lead off with asking for a blessing from him then he'll be more likely to accept my cabin proposal._

"Here's where you'll be sleeping, Percy," Luke gestured to a blue sleeping bag on the ground, near the center of the mess of a cabin. "I'm going to see if I can wrangle you up some toiletries. Take a look around camp if you want."

Luke left Percy standing in the cabin. Percy sighed as he laid down in his sleeping bag.

_I kept worrying about what I was going to do about the Giants. I actually forgot that I'm going to be at the center of the Great Prophecy... again._

_I wonder if I can actually defy the Fates, defy the future that the Fates handed to me._

Percy laughed. Thankfully, there's was no one in the cabin to hear him.

_What the hell am I saying? I shouldn't be having any doubts. If I had doubts then I should have just stayed in the future and collapsed a continent on Gaea when I had the chance and die in a glorious, spectacular death as the biggest middle finger ever given to anyone. I will defy fate itself... and not even death itself will stop me._

_Especially if you get chained up again, Thanatos._

...

The week leading up to the Capture-The-Flag game was a slow week for Percy especially considering that he done all this before. It had taken a while before Percy was climbing the lava wall with ease and better than most if not all the campers there. It helped that it took a long time before the lava actually burned him.

He was still terrible at archery though as soon as he had grabbed a dagger from the hip of the closest Apollo camper and thrown in at the bullseye of an archery target, they had stopped laughing at him. It was a skill he had picked up in the future in lieu of archery since he sucked at the skill. The dryads he ran against in races still left him in the dust though he managed to put up a better fight.

Luke had begun personally tutoring him in swordsmanship– though Percy didn't actually need it considering he was the greatest swordsman in the future; he really just needed to build up some height, muscle, and reflexes to get to his former skill level– since apparently Percy had untapped skill and talent when he had quickly disarmed Luke using the same skill he had been taught so long ago with Riptide, a balanced sword– _whoops_.

Clarisse had finally made her appearance– apparently, she had given him a day to settle in and deal with the loss of his mother– _and wasn't that considerate of her?_– before she harassed him. Thankfully, he had figured out how to deal with her long ago. Challenge her to a fight in the arena and beat her for all to see. Granted, it took a lot of name calling such as coward, wuss, and, most notably, daddy's little girl, before she finally accepted his offer but at least this time around, he wasn't a target of Clarrisse's or her cabin mates ire.

The reason why Clarisse hazed the newest campers was to toughen them up. After all, no demigod would last long if they couldn't handle themselves. Clarisse introduced that concept by hazing them. By doing so, she ensured that not only would they try to better themselves through training whether it be by archery, swords, spears, and so on, but that they would also learn to how to create tentative friendships with other people and build strong bonds. After all, no war had ever been won by a single person. Even Zeus had had the help of his fellow siblings when overthrowing Kronos. At least, that was what she had told Percy one night a few weeks before her untimely death defending several of her younger siblings.

Percy had humiliated Clarisse in the original timeline, which she didn't exactly appreciate and had dedicated herself to humiliating him or at the very least, beating the crap out him, for rejecting her generous lesson. By challenging her and subsequently defeating her in front of many people, he had earned Clarisse's respect.

And he had defeated her in wrestling.

And in hand to hand combat.

And in fighting with spears.

And in staff combat– Percy hadn't actually known they taught this at camp. He had only used it when he was wounded and surrounded by enemies in the future. A staff imbued with the remnants of the Master Bolt and that held the remainder of Zeus's power of thunder and air was not something most monsters could stand up against.

Unfortunately for Percy, beating her at so many things, had not earned him Clarisse's anger– though she did train even harder than ever– but a slight infatuation.

It made Percy feel very uncomfortable.

While Clarisse looked more like a younger, female version of Ares than anything else. She was taller than him though they were the same age and a lot more muscled than any twelve year old who had yet to go through puberty had a right to be. She had brown eyes that were almost always in a state of slight rage– except when she saw Percy, then they turned calmer– stringy, light brown hair, and a confident smirk that had been toned down from arrogance thanks to her daily losses against Percy. She'd grow up to be a pretty girl in the future– _but wasn't she dating Chris something? Oh wait, he was one of the ones who betrayed us for Gaea_– but Percy wasn't exactly in this timeline to get a girlfriend.

Percy was especially uncomfortable when he had commented in the shower to himself that he really needed to get a knife in case he was ever disarmed only for Clarisse, an hour later, to give him a seven inch dagger not including the five inch handle, all the while blushing furiously.

In all the years he had known her, Percy had never seen Clarisse blush before.

But he still made sure to kick Connor's ass enough to warrant a day's stay in the infirmary when he had learned that Connor had sold Clarisse entrance into the Hermes cabin each time he took a shower.

There were certain inalienable rights granted to him, like all American citizens, by the Constitution.

Percy was pretty sure that the right to talk to himself in the shower in private was one of them.

In this new timeline, he hadn't actually seen much of Annabeth or Grover. Annabeth, in the old timeline, had tutored him in Greek but since Chiron had deemed more than knowledgable in Greek, he hadn't needed any tutoring and thus, no Annabeth.

Which only gave him more free time in which to avoid the stalker known as Clarisse.

Grover? Well, Percy assumed he was busy doing nature-y stuff like picking up litter and playing– badly– the bagpipes as well as trying to get another chance with the Council of Cloven Elders though, if asked, Percy would gladly say that Grover had successfully brought him to camp barring Percy's own intentional ignorance, Zeus hitting him twice with a lightning bolt, Hades sending the Minotaur after them, and then skeletons to kidnap his mom.

Other than that, Grover did perfectly fine.

Percy chomped on an apple and sipped some blue cherry coke. Today was the day of Capture-the-Flag. And the day he would get claimed by Poseidon.

Probably.

Strangely enough, the teams were almost exactly the same.

The only difference was that, due to Clarisse's meddling and bargaining, the Hermes cabin had sided with the Ares cabin for the duration of the battle while the Demeter cabin sided with the Athena cabin.

"All right, listen up, maggots!" Clarisse yelled from far in the front where Percy could– thankfully– barely hear her from his position in the very back.

"We're gonna pound those scrawny Athena campers and that stupid Annabeth into the ground!" Clarisse roared. Only the Ares cabin cheered. The reason why Clarisse had only mentioned the Athena cabin and Annabeth was because Annabeth had cursed Clarisse out yesterday when a new camper had made it to Camp Half-Blood and Clarisse had given the new camper the initiation.

"Hephaestus cabin attacks right, Aphrodite cabin goes left, Ares cabin goes in the middle, Dionysius cabin defends the flag, and the Hermes cabin picks anyone and everyone off who gets into our territory," Clarisse commanded.

Percy frowned. Her plan was a reckless attempt and would create many unneeded sacrifices in a war. But, Percy realized, this was practice. He wouldn't say anything this time, since he wasn't as well known and no one would really listen to him, but he would make sure, later on, to teach Clarisse a few tactics and maybe he would give her a couple strategy books for Christmas or something so she could learn how to move forces about better. That way, when war began, they wouldn't have too many losses.

"Hold it, Percy," Clarisse put a hand out, preventing Percy from following the Hermes cabin into the woods.

Clarisse smiled at him, a slight blush tinging her cheeks. "You're with me."

"B-but I'm with the Hermes cabin," Percy held out a hand at the retreating Hermes cabin.

Travis looked over his shoulder and gave a sly wink.

_That bastard! I don't know how but he sold me out!_

"Everyone else is a distraction. We're going to be getting the flag," Clarisse said proudly.

"Everyone?" Percy asked incredulously.

_Forget Christmas, I'll give her those books when I get back from the quest._

Percy sighed. "Alright, Clarisse. Why don't you explain more of your plan to me while we walk to wherever it is you want us be before the game begins."

Percy narrowly managed to avoid keeping his hand free from Clarisse's hand.

Seventeen times.

...

The horn sounded throughout the forest, beginning the game of Capture-the-Flag. Percy quickly followed Clarisse across the boundary and into enemy territory quietly, since they were supposed to be sneaky about it. Clarisse had regular clothes on since the usual armor she wore was too bulky and heavy to move fast. Percy wore the same thing, an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt– _we really need to get the camp shirt in a different color if we don't want to die early_– and jeans. Riptide was in his right hand and in sword form– better to be ready than dead– something Clarisse definitely agreed with if her spear in both hands was anything to go by.

Without warning, Clarisse suddenly felt a hand on her mouth. Then, she felt herself being pulled down and behind a tree and into the underbrush before she could react. She considered biting the hand before she heard a familiar voice speaking lowly to her. "Sorry, Clarisse, but we would have been caught if I had said anything before pulling you down. There's a couple demigods about to pass us. Be very, very quiet."

Clarisse said nothing as she laid in the shrubbery with Percy's body pressed against her. He had, to her dismay, removed his hand from her hand though she did manage to get a lick in. His palm tasted of dirt and sweat but with a faint tinge of sea spray. She liked it. _This is pretty nice too,_ she thought. _Maybe we could do this some more...when we're older._

She suddenly stiffened as she heard voice speaking fairly close to their location. She made to get up so that she could fight them but was prevented from doing so by Percy, whose arm wrapped around her waist and held her in place. She blushed furiously but remained in place. After all, what would those campers think if they caught she and Percy together in the underbrush?

Soon enough, the voices faded from hearing and Percy immediately let go of her and stood up. He offered a hand to her which she accepted. Clarisse was extremely grateful that she wasn't blushing anymore though she couldn't quite meet his eyes for thirty seconds until she realized that Percy had prevented her from taking on a couple of demigods.

"Why the Hades did you stop me from kicking their asses, Percy?" Clarisse asked him roughly. "You don't think I could have taken them?"

"Of course I think you could have taken them, Clarisse," Percy began moving again, Clarisse walking beside him. "You're one of the most skilled campers around."

Clarisse turned her head so that Percy wouldn't see her blushing at the compliment he had paid her.

"But, sometimes its best to avoid a fight. We're trying to get the flag, right? Well, if we had fought those demigods there was a slight chance that we would have been injured. Those injuries would have slowed us down and it would take even longer to get the flag and get it past the creek," Percy explained as they made it to the creek.

Clarisse mulled over Percy's words as he entered the creek and grabbed the flag. She could see what he meant. That sometimes it was better to live to fight another day. Or, at the very least, avoid fights to fulfill the mission objective. She could see the reason in that– even if the godly blood in her told to fight until she couldn't move. She'd probably live longer if she ignored her instinct and listened to Percy instead.

The reason she would listen to Percy was so that she could live longer and enjoy more fights.

Not at all because she had the smallest, tiniest crush on him.

_And_, Clarisse reasoned with herself, _what's not to like about him. He's cute and he'll only grow hotter in a few years. He can fight– a lot better than most people. But most importantly, he didn't think I wast stupid or warmongering just because I'm a daughter of Ares like everyone else. I hope he doesn't start thinking like that just because other people have told him that Ares campers are stupid or only want to fight._ Clarisse clenched a fist. _I'll make sure he doesn't._

"Clarisse?" Clarisse was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of her name. "You okay?"

Clarisse blinked twice. "Yeah, yeah, fine Percy. You got the flag? Let's go!"

Percy nodded his head and off they went, this time choosing to get over the boundary as fast as possible over stealth. They covered a lot of ground, avoiding traps and the stray arrow from the occasional Apollo camper.

Clarisse's heart raced as she saw the boundary just up ahead and Annabeth– _that stupid cheating brat with the invisibility hat_– roughly the same distance away from the river as they were, running as fast as her legs would take them. She blinked as Percy suddenly increased his pace, easily outrunning both she and Annabeth, and claiming victory for the Ares cabin and their allies by running across the river and reaching their home territory.

"Yes!" Clarisse shouted as the flag they captured turned red, symbolizing their victory and the horn sounded, ending the game. _At long last, the Athena cabin has finally lost!_ "We won!"

Clarisse very nearly kissed Percy– on the cheek and only because they had won!– before she heard a growling sound and turned around only to see a large, black dog with coal eyes and large, sharp teeth growling at them, slobbering all over the ground.

"Shit!" Clarisse yelled as she brought her spear at the ready. "A hellhound!"

She watched as Percy immediately spun, letting go of the flag, and brandishing his sword cautiously at the canine. A tense moment of silence went by before Annabeth squeaked and the hellhound attacked.

Clarisse stood in awe, observing Percy as he went about, nearly methodically, slamming the flat of his blade against the hellhound, disorienting the beast, before immediately taking a second swing along the side of the hellhound. The hellhound roared in fury as it attempted to turn, trying to bite Percy and consume demigod flesh. As the hellhound opened its mouth to take a large chunk of demigod, Percy stabbed his sword in its mouth, killing it.

A round of gasps was heard, announcing the arrival of several campers and Chiron as they watched the last of the battle and witnessed the death of the hellhound and the subsequent turning of the hellhound into gold dust.

"So," Percy spoke, breaking the silence that prevailed yet again, and picking up the flag he had dropped in order to engage the hellhound. "We won."

It was at that point that the symbol of Poseidon decided to appear above Percy's head.

...

The following six days were quiet enough for Percy.

At long last, he had managed to move in the Poseidon cabin and have the entire space to all to himself.

He still talked to people, most notably, Luke, Pollux, and Clarisse, but mostly he was politely avoided from the majority of campers since there wasn't supposed to be a child of the Big Three alive. Strangely enough, the Ares cabin all spoke to him even after he had been claimed though he attributed that to Clarisse punching them if they didn't and the fact that he had won the game of Capture-the-Flag for them against the Athena cabin.

Predictably, the Athena campers avoided him like the plague or insulted him with many syllable words that he couldn't comprehend even if he was thirty years older than them let along a little over ten. He supposed that the reason they insulted him was because he hadn't made friends with Annabeth this time around, whom he guessed had stopped any of them from saying bad things to or about him.

If he had been twelve, he probably would have punched them in the face. Instead, he retaliated by asking them awkward questions like 'How were you born if Athena is a maiden goddess? Did she imagine having sex in her head and then nine months later, you were born?' and showing them a spider while asking, 'How come you don't like spiders?'

He laughed every time they ran away screaming.

He still fought against everyone who wanted to fight him in the arena and still trained in all the aspects of combat they offered– though archery was the only discipline he still hadn't made much progress in.

Clarisse still stalked him at every opportunity. She actually ramped it up since he was alone most of the time. He was pretty sure that he had seen her outside his window on three separate occasions just peering inside with a manic look in her eyes and a grin.

He made sure to avoid for hours afterwards.

Still, he had fun for the six days he stayed here.

But the nights were still a horror. At night, nightmares came flooding backing to him of all the deaths of every camper he had met yet. He had witnessed the majority of them die in the old timeline and was reliving each death. It seemed as if he would never escape his personal hell.

Sure, he had managed to greet everyone politely for the week he had stayed before the Capture-the-Flag game and had managed to bottle down the recollections of the deaths of every camper he had met thus far. However, he couldn't stop recalling each death at night when he was sleeping. He couldn't stop reliving the past.

So, he tended not to sleep for most hours of the night. He was used to it since if he had slept for too long in the original timeline, he would have died in his sleep. Not even the many months of peace he had come to enjoy could erase years of habit. Any of his survival habits, actually. From quickly scanning each and every place he entered for at least two exit points– since Gaea hadn't actually rid the world of buildings– to sleeping with his pen under his pillow. He had been lucky so far that people hadn't noticed but it was only a matter of time until someone caught on to the odd quirk or so he exhibited.

Luckily, he had an excuse.

He was a demigod.

In the privacy of his cabin, with beds cleared to the side, and a heavy layer of Mist influencing the windows to display him sleeping in one of the beds and on the door to repel anyone who wanted to intrude on him, he, at last, began practicing with the weapons the Big Three had given him in the old timeline. A week hadn't rusted his skills with each weapon in the slightest, especially since he practiced with weapons of similar size and shape in the arena, but it was best to get used to Eradicator, Fury, and Fulminata, as quick as possible. After all, war would be coming soon. And only at that point would he unveil his weapons.

Percy walked at a steady pace to the Big House, where he had been called to meet with Chiron and Dionysius.

Soon enough, he entered and was greeted with the sight of a pudgy wine god and a centaur playing pinochle.

"Ha!" Dionysus laid down his cards. "I won!"

"I'm afraid not," Chiron held an amused tone in his voice as he laid down his own cards. "Victory goes to me."

Dionysius sighed as he waved his hands and the cards floated in the air, gathered themselves into a deck of fifty-two, and shuffled themselves.

"Ah, Percy," Chiron turned around, a great feat considering that he was in his original form. "How good to see you arrive promptly."

"Mr. D, Chiron, Grover," Percy waved a hand at each of them. "Finally ready to tell me where the Underworld is?"

"Not quite, Percy," Chiron said.

"I'm pretty sure we made a deal, man to centaur. The shaking of hands was also involved," Percy replied, eyes narrowing.

"Yes, well, a problem has been brought to our attention," Chiron began somewhat nervously.

"Sucks to be you," Percy flippantly replied. "Now where's the Underworld?"

"It involved you, to be honest," Chiron said.

"Look if this was about Zeus's cabin being destroyed for the second time in a week, it wasn't me," Percy gave all three of them an innocent look.

It was a look he failed miserably at if Mr. D's snort was anything to go by.

"I did not call you here about that though if you do have any information about that, please speak up," Chiron said tiredly, "otherwise–"

"It was Hades!" Percy interrupted the centaur. "Everyone's pretty positive he did it."

A bigger and better version of Zeus's cabin had appeared five days ago in the spot of the original cabin. According to several Athena campers, most notably, Annabeth since architecture was her absolute favorite subject, Athena herself had designed it– with input from Zeus of what it should have engraved on the cabin walls, of course.

The following day saw the great, elaborate cabin gone. It had simply vanished as if it had never existed. Some believed that Athena was behind it– especially since everyone in camp agreed that twenty images of Zeus on the outside walls was a bit too much. Others, remembering the rumors from a week ago, believed that Hades had dragged it down to the Underworld.

In fact, that last but had been true. The only thing wrong with that last theory was who the campers were pointing the blame at.

_That's two for two, ya bastard._

On an unrelated note, according to Percy anyways, there was a lot of thunder and lightning that day.

"The Master Bolt has been stolen," Chiron solemnly stated, raising his voice to emphasize the graveness of the situation.

"And you're telling me this because of what exactly?" Percy asked.

"Because you're being accused of stealing father's Master Bolt," Dionysius answered him.

Dionysius acted strange towards Percy. Sometimes, he would act grumpily like towards any other camper and other times he would actually act slightly less grumpy and get his name right. It was very... off-putting. Percy suspected it was because he was friends with Pollux, and to a lesser extent, Castor, though really the only thing Percy and Pollux did was talk about strategies– apparently, Pollux was very interested in learning how to manipulate plant life to do his bidding– and fight with each other in the arena.

Percy let loose a sigh. "Let's just get one thing straight. I'm not going looking for any thunder bolt that belongs to Zeus. Maybe Aeolus but not Zeus."

Chiron shot Percy an unamused look. "You have until the Summer Solstice to retrieve the Master Bolt before Zeus declares war on Poseidon and all the world will end."

"What's in it for me?"

Chiron blinked. Mr. D looked up interestedly.

"What?"

"I said, what's in it for me?"

"The glory of going on a quest and doing a favor for Zeus," Chiron said hesitantly.

"That's nice and all," Percy spoke slowly. "But Zeus can shove the glory of a quest up his pasty, bony ass."

Thunder rumbled angrily across the sky.

Dionysius roared in laughter. A tear actually fell from his eyes. "That was good, Peter. I haven't laughed like that in ages."

"Well, I'm just telling it how it is. Zeus wants me to do something for him for free? Forget about it. He might as well get off his own ass and stop watching people speak badly about him all the time and go search for it himself. Otherwise, he better be prepared to offer something up," Percy said as he crossed his arms. "I've lived a hard life. I'm not doing anything for something as stupid as honor or glory especially if I have to risk my life doing it and might actually die anyways. Fuck that."

Chiron gaped at him. Where had he gone wrong in training Percy? Perhaps, he should have made sure that Percy was actually paying attention when he explained what being a demigod entailed...

"B-but quest!" It looked as if Percy had broken Chiron.

Dionysius chuckled. "Perhaps you should Iris message Zeus yourself and tell him what you want yourself."

Percy frowned. "Hell no. He wants something from me, I don't want anything from him. If he can know everything I see than he can sure as hell message me. Anyways, I need to get packing if I plan on going to the Underworld. I have to rescue my mom, you know."

Dionysius grin dimmed a little. As much as he found the feisty little son of Poseidon amusing, the Master Bolt did have to be found. "I find this amusing, Percy Jackson, so I will speak to him on your behalf. Why don't you write down what you want and I will inform him of your requests."

The wine god conjured a piece of paper and pen and handed it to Percy.

"Thanks Mr. D," Percy said cheerily as began writing down what he wanted. "I don't know if idiocy is contagious but I'm not willing to find out even if I were to talk to Zeus through Iris messaging."

Dionysius snorted before grabbing the paper, glancing over it quickly, and laughed as teleported out of the Big House.

Thunder rumbled angrily several times for the next several minutes before finally, Dionysius teleported back. By then, Percy had already went up to the attic and climbed down, prophecy in memory, and had had Chiron contact Pollux and Clarisse to join him in the Big House for a quest– since he didn't know Annabeth all that well in this timeline and he had convinced Dionysius that Grover had succeeded in his duties in retrieving a demigod.

"So? What did he agree to?" Percy grinned eagerly.

"Definitely not the first or second," Mr. D began, eagerly recounting what had occurred between he and his father. "He did not understand the reference the third made to the first two. He did not agree to the fourth or fifth. He did, however, agree to the sixth and swore on the River Styx like you asked. And I told him the seventh, out of curiosity, and he desperately wanted to kill you but I managed to convince him otherwise. For the time being."

Percy gave him a thumbs up. "Thanks, Mr. D. I hope that list brought you a little amusement."

"It most certainly did," Dionysius grinned before it faded a little. "You should be careful though, Percy. It would be unwise to anger Zeus anymore."

"Alright, I guess I could give him a break. I'm sure I'm driving him crazy by muttering bad words and Zeus in the same sentence under my breath."

"Go on, now. You have a quest to fulfill."

"Yeah," Percy sighed as he turned around to the doorway of the Big House. "I guess I better get a move on."

"By the way, Mr. D, please burn that list. I don't want to die just yet."

~A78 Ch3~

_Omake:_

_Percy's List._

_Your wife (since you don't take care of her much)._

_2. Your Olympian daughters (since at least you know how to make pretty girls even if you do lose your Master Bolt._

_3. You're not allowed to hide them either._

_4. Your blessing (since it would be pretty cool to throw around thunderbolts like they're going out of fashion like you do)._

_5. Release all the peaceful Titans from their prisons (since they didn't oppose you in the last war)._

_6. Allow all the minor and allied gods to have cabins in Camp Half-Blood since there's a lot of people crowded in the Hermes cabin. (Make sure he swears on the River Styx to let them have cabins within a week of receiving his Master Bolt._

_7. If Zeus refused everything else, tell him, finders keepers, motherfucker!_

**A/N: I had originally planned to write a chapter of another story of mine but this one really just wrote itself over the week.**

**So, more characters are introduced. I figured that if Percy knew how to handle the Ares campers from the beginning, he wouldn't earn the anger of the entire Ares cabin.**

**Also, Stalker-Clarisse. Or is it Stalker!Clarisse! I don't know. I hadn't even planned on doing anything like that but, I thought it was pretty funny when the idea just popped into my head so I went for it. Hopefully, you guys like it too.**

**Darkkon27: Yes, but this is the ever-stubborn, ever determined Percy we're talking about who has been to Tartarus and back.**

**ILuffsNicodiAngelo: I'm afraid I don't understand. That's the premise of the whole story.**

**Dp11: I agree with you about the powerful Percy but if he just starts pulling off amazing, awe-inspiring techniques out of his ass, the gods, or at least Zeus, fearing him, will kill him since, to their knowledge, he's only been a demigod for two weeks.**

**So, don't worry, even if I didn't offer a response, I did read all your reviews and will take those suggestions into considerations.**

**Also, I wouldn't think Percy would want to take along two of his former closest friends along with him for the Master Bolt quest. Especially, since he knew when they died and was unable to prevent it.**

**Percy is in the past to change the future, you know?**

**As always,**

**Thanks for reading!**


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